Valerie Abend

Valerie Abend is a recognized leader with over two decades of experience spearheading financial services sector-wide and enterprise-wide security and resilience programs. As Accenture's leader for both the North America Financial Services Cybersecurity and Global Cyber Regulatory Practices, Abend advises C-suite executives on how to manage cyber risk to enable new business strategies and remain resilient in the face of rapidly evolving threats.

Previously, Abend served as the Senior Critical Infrastructure Officer for the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. In this role, she conceptualized and led the U.S. Federal banking agencies' cybersecurity and resilience strategy, reshaping the cyber supervision processes and examination policy, and the agencies' interaction with law enforcement and the intelligence community. Abend was a Managing Director at Bank of New York Mellon and has served as a senior executive at the Federal Reserve Board and as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Critical Infrastructure Protection at the Treasury Department. Earlier in her career, Abend was an Associate Director at KPMG and on the staff of two congressional commissions studying Internet policy issues.

Abend has testified several times in front of Congress and is frequently quoted in media on cybersecurity issues. She currently serves as a member of the Monetary Authority of Singapore's Cybersecurity Advisory Panel, as an advisor to the Board for the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), and is a member of the Executive Women's Forum. She also held prior positions on the White House's Identity Theft Task Force, the Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council's policy committee, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Homeland Security Committee, and on the Board of Directors for the Internet Security Alliance.